


Doctor on the Radio

by cereal



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cereal/pseuds/cereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And anyway, it's not like she doesn't hear about what he says -- about what he thinks is acceptable to tell the whole of the city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor on the Radio

**Author's Note:**

> Written on [a photo](http://allrightfine.tumblr.com/post/18184451073/tardisalert-this-follows-on-from-this) over on Tumblr.
> 
> * * *

It's crazy, is what it is. For her to feel jealous of the anonymous masses that still listen to the radio and not their iPods or CDs or the sound of their own breathing on the drive into work.

She knows there are people, _aliens_ , the universe over that have heard the Doctor say all sorts of things, in all sorts of tones, in all sorts of times. There are even some that have heard the same things Rose has, low intimate rumbles and bitten-back groans.

(And it's just as well they don't have morning radio in 18th century France because _some_ people maybe don't need to hear any more of it, if Rose can be so bold.)

But she is -- jealous, that is. Because the Doctor had lucked into this new side gig about, oh, 24 years after Rose had locked in her personality as one that decidedly did not belong to a morning person.

So while the Doctor rises before the sun, dropping a kiss on her forehead before dashing off to speak right to London for three hours, Rose waits until the last possible second (and sometimes beyond that) before dragging herself out of bed.

If she's feeling restless after he leaves, she sometimes turns the radio on the alarm clock on and lets herself be lulled back to sleep by the sound of the Doctor talking about that week's movie releases and how he liked the new pizza place down the street from their flat. But those mornings are few and far between -- the warmth of his pillow and the smell of him on the sheets usually does the trick.

A few of the stations still air his Vitex commercials sometimes, the ones Pete had begged him to do after the press interviews started going so well. And while Rose knows it's those commercials and the way the demographic for Vitex switched to housewives nearly overnight that eventually landed him the morning DJ gig, it's not the same as hearing him say something new over the airwaves every day. She can practically recite those adverts by heart as it is.

And anyway, it's not like she doesn't hear about what he says -- about what he thinks is acceptable to tell the whole of the city. For his part, the Doctor barely brings it up, still a champion babbler that never needs to retread material, and certainly not for Rose.

No, she hears it from _other_ people.

Todd in accounting will see her in the cafeteria and tell her to pass on to the Doctor that he, too, has been experimenting with boxer briefs. And that he, too, finds they drive his girlfriend wild. 

(Rose gives the Doctor a wedgie that night at the dinner table and cheerfully points out the ease with which she did it as another added bonus of boxer briefs to share with his listeners.)

Louise at the market will tell her to let the Doctor off easy -- he'd sounded so sad talking about their latest row that morning. Surely he couldn't have made that much of a mess of the kitchen.

(She takes a photo of every subsequent mess on her mobile, ready to provide nosy people with evidence that the Doctor downplays his ability to accidentally explode appliances. _Significantly_ downplays.)

Her mum -- her own _mum_! -- calls to tell her that Tyler women have a history of intestinal distress after Chinese food and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

(The leftovers from that particular dinner somehow find their way to the Doctor's jacket pocket.)

It takes an almost embarrassing amount of time for Rose to realize she could just call in to the show to even things out. And it takes a shameful amount of time after that to train her body to be alert at that hour -- her first attempt aborted in the middle, as she fell asleep on the phone and the Doctor allowed her snoring to broadcast for a full minute before disconnecting.

(The Snoring Rose Remix Contest is still the most entered contest in station history.)

When she finally gets the timing sorted though, boy, does it take off fast. Suddenly women in shops are asking _her_ for relationship advice, asking for the secret to the success of her relationship with the Doctor. Asking how they keep things _spicy_ , asking where they can find a man like that.

(Laughing when she says, "a parallel universe.")

It's not much longer before Rose has her own microphone at the studio, before she's added to the payroll, before they start hosting award shows and _winning_ awards.

And it's good -- it's good for years and years. Until it's great. Until an old, alien radio in the Torchwood basement crackles to life, Mickey Smith on the other end.

It's something to do with sound waves and loopholes and the impossible's still impossible, except for a voice. One that doesn't sound quite like her Doctor's anymore, doesn't sound practiced and polished and professional. But it's close and it's perfect and it's just long enough --

"Time Lords don't wear _boxer briefs_."

* * *


End file.
